


Rollercoaster

by Thereal_IreneAdler



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:15:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24834448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thereal_IreneAdler/pseuds/Thereal_IreneAdler
Summary: boats against the current-Disclaimers:This is a fanfiction. Durarara!! novels, anime, manga, radio show[s], and video games are owned by Ryohgo Narita, Brain’s Base, Shuka, Yen Press, and Aniplex USA. Please support the original creators.This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Kudos: 1





	1. Prelude: Butterfly's Basilica

**Disclaimers**

This is a fanfiction _. Durarara!!_ novels, anime, manga, radio show[s], and video games are owned by Ryohgo Narita, Brain’s Base, Shuka, Yen Press, and Aniplex USA. Please support the original creators.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

It was around noon that a dazed, hazy memory resurfaced in the girl’s head. The April sun was bright, and the rattle of birds outside swooned and quelled as they flew by. Her chin was resting on the window’s stool when the morning sun reflected off a passing car, blinding the girl and making her screw her eyes shut, just for a moment.

She thought the air blowing through the train station was too cold for spring. She brought her hands into her pockets and squeezed her elbows into her sides. The girl—Ueno Yuriko—stood off to the side, out of the way of sidestepping drunk businessmen and boisterous teenagers sprouting from the underground. They walked around, passed each other, bumped shoulders, knees or heads, and continued on their way until they vanished again.

Yuriko’s sight was clogged with this giant mass of people, but they made no sound. She could only hear her breath draw from her lips over and over again while the scene in front of her kept moving. 

With the click of a heel, the clanging of metal, and a shade of dark hair, a pale face leaned out from behind a vending machine, her hand holding a thin blue can, which was unceremoniously shoved into Yuriko’s hands.

“I thought you’d need this.” Yuriko’s widened her eyes as her senses recognized a set of familiar features on a pretty face.

“Ma…yu?” The girl echoed, almost in a daze. But before she could say anything else, Mayu’s cool façade melted away, and she let out a cry of pure joy, looping her arms around Yuriko.

“You remember me! Oh God, I missed you so much! Look at you,” Mayu leaned away and dug her fingers into Yuriko’s shoulders, who hung loosely in her iron grip. “Your hair’s gotten longer and lighter; you’ve grown taller too! Although, only a little, you’re still shorter than me. Ah, but I can’t tell when you’re slouched.”

“Ah, well… sorry I’m tired.” Yuriko confessed.

Mayu laughed and put a hand on Yuriko’s shoulder. “What, is the ride what got you?”

“That and waiting here for another twenty minutes for a lazy friend.”

“My, that person sounds like a horrible friend!” Mayu watched Yuriko give her a playful and somewhat tired smile.

“Hey, Yuri, stop that. I’m your senior.”

“We’re not in high school anymore, Mayu.” But Yuriko’s accusations were disregarded as Mayu seized her bicep in one of her hands and dragged the poor girl along the platform and down the large set of stairs that led into a wide underground area painted white, the floor still a grid of tiles from wall to wall1.

They walked wordlessly while Yuriko looked at the can, eyeing it and twisting it in her hand as if she was analyzing its contents. It was an energy drink with a silver line that struck through the intensity of a cerulean blue.

“You want me to stay up all night, don’t you?” She suddenly said, and her friend half faked a dramatized shock.

“Ahh, I’ve been caught! Oh, well… yes, but is that so terrible?”

“A little, but I don’t mind.” Yuriko pocketed the drink before turning back to Mayu for an explanation. 

"Aha, sorry. I’m just so excited that you’re here. I wanted to show you the city.”

“Didn’t we plan for a tour tomorrow?”

“I know, I know, but even then, I just got a high from seeing you after a year of absence, can you blame me for wanting to talk to you a bit more before you pass out?” She smiled somehow strangely as if she’d just confessed to a crime while still keeping her beautiful energy about her.

Momentarily, Mayu’s expression and overall person seemed tiring to be around, and the already sluggish girl considered blowing her off. But the familiarity of that face and all the memories it brought with it made her cave to her friend’s demands. “Well, yes, I can. But, if your plan succeeds, then we’ll both have a good time.”

Mayu’s dark eyes flashed with excited enthusiasm, and she stretched a grin from ear to ear.

Without words, Yuriko felt as if she said, “I’m so glad you’re here” in the gentlest of voices.

Δ Δ Δ

The two found a small and cramped escalator that led into the heart of the city. Stepping from rubber to stone, they were revealed to the evening sun, ducking somewhere behind the buildings. People congregated on the sidewalk, the intersection, and somewhere in between. For a moment, Yuriko felt her body stiffen from the sight as it engulfed her. She heard the sounds of minute conversation and screeching of tires from vehicles somewhere on the road; even the changing of streetlights from red to green filled her forlorn heart with an indistinguishable fascination. The intensity of the scene deluded only slightly as she felt the familiar touch of Mayu’s hand grasping her own. She dragged Yuriko from the escalator into the sea of people, smiled, and said, “The night is young!”

The impression of that moment remained on her for the entire night. Ironically, the two never did any of the high stakes adventure-y things they expected themselves to do, finding themselves stumbling through a cool night after a drink or two.

After an hour or so, the girls found their way to Yuriko’s new place of residence, a tall building (at least in comparison to the buildings next to it) with a matted grey coloring and a parking area on the south side filled with minivans and SUVs.

Mayu watched Yuriko walk into the lobby and strike up a conversation with the clerk who, after a few minutes, gave her the directions to her apartment and the keys. They went up eight floors, then down two realizing they’d misread the number plate after Mayu insisted that the scratched out six looked like an eight. Yuriko shoved the keys in the door and sighed.

As the door was pushed open, a level of surrealness enveloped the two girls. It was around nine in the evening, so everything was dark. The only shadows cast were a result of blushing moonlight beaming through a pair of flimsy curtains across the room. As for the room itself, it was meant to be a living room, but its small size contested otherwise. Even the kitchenette that took up minimal space on its own seemed to ungracefully pour out on the wooden floor. To the left of the main room were two doors half-shut, one was a storage closet and the other a guest bathroom. Yuriko’s expression morphed into a pleasant smile, rather than her ambivalence from earlier in the evening. She haphazardly threw her coat onto the floor and took off her shoes. Mayu, on the other hand, stayed silent and shoved her hands in her pockets.

“It’s… charming.” She looked around, trying to find anything that caught her attention in the cramped space, but besides some noticeable wear-and-tear, it was exempt from the unnatural. Mayu reached out to the light switch placed on the left wall adjacent to the door, but suddenly got embarrassed for some reason and looked to Yuriko across the room.

“Ah, I guess.” Yuriko echoed from the kitchen. She opened the fridge and peered inside, the white light lighting up her face for a brief moment before dispreading when she closed the door.

“By the way, how many square feet is this place?” Mayu asked while slipping off her shoes.

“82.”

“What! Then where’s the rest of the square space? Did you buy another apartment with this or something?”

Yuriko, seemingly not hearing what Mayu, grinned and walked over to the right section of the room where a thin, short hallway led to a closed door. The hallway also held a sliding door that opened into a storage closet. Yuriko peered inside and noticed an old pendant light hanging from the ceiling, just off-center of the closet. She pulled the thin chain next to it, nothing happened. She pulled it a second time, seemingly to turn it off and raised herself on her tiptoes to reach the cold, dead light bulb.

“I found this place after looking at apartment leases that were a bit out of my price range. Every other place I looked at was either too small, strangely organized, or had other inscrutable details that I hated. When I saw the ad for this apartment, I thought that it would be too good to be true, and it was. No one’s lived here for years on the account that the last lessee went against the contract and altered the building’s structure; he knocked down a wall.” She finished her task and placed the burned-out light bulb on one of the shelves in the storage closet. She leaned back, stepped out, and closed the door.

She turned to face Mayu, abandoning her aloofness, and continued talking.

“I did some negotiating on the price; after all, a broke university student can only pay so much. But I got a three-year lease.” With an abrupt pause, she grabbed Mayu’s hand.

“I’d like to show you something.” Yuriko led Mayu towards the door at the end of the hall. Her friend’s expression bent in odd angles to form some mix of confusion and anxiety. Even then, Mayu had full faith in the warm hand leading her forward.

When Yuriko gently pressed her palm against the mahogany wood of the door and pushed it open, the pair of women felt a confusing set of emotions wash over them; surprise, calm, excitement, tranquility, happiness, but no one said a word.

The room was immense. It had to be at least forty feet or so, a rarity in the heart of a densely populated city. Stepping in, Mayu noticed how the chipped paint looked almost flower-like as it peeled away to reveal the metal faces of bolts and nails. This strange pattern continued around the rectangular room in varying degrees, where flowers would bloom, die, and bud in an endless cycle. There was a clothing closet in the far corner opposite to where they came in, and across from it the bathroom door. But the most brilliant thing about this pale, splintered, rugged room was the window that stretched nearly the entirety of the southern wall.

“One half used to be a tatami room2, the other was a bedroom. By itself, the architecture was rather strange and uncomfortable for most people to live in, and there wasn’t a balcony either3. This caused the price to drop in spite of the square footage, and after the last lessee went against the contract, it dropped again because no one would rent someone’s unfinished passion project.” Yuriko went over to the window and slid half the frame to the side to open it. The outside world announced its presence with a hollering gust of wind that blew through Yuriko’s hair and curtains, making them flutter together in silent agreement.

“This window is two and a half meters tall and three meters wide. It’s amazing. The light that will pour from it come tomorrow will turn this room into a pool of golden sunlight.”

It was there, on the sixth floor, that Mayu watched Yuriko smile sweetly at the residential streets that lacked the bustle of the city, and basked in the quiet. Mayu wondered if the girl in front of her would ever tell her what she felt when she had that distant look in her emerald eye, but quickly waved away the thought. They stood there for the next ten minutes: Yuriko watching the street and Mayu watching Yuriko. After those ten minutes, Mayu quietly saw herself out.

Δ Δ Δ

The next morning Yuriko’s hair was a mess, her body ached from having slept on the wooden floor, and the sound of her five am alarm made her nauseous.

The movers came and went, dropping off box after box until their van was empty. Yuriko thanked them, paid them, and they left. She made a call at nine to her Internet provider, an insurance agent, and a couple of other formalities that were necessary when moving into a new place. By the next hour, everything was settled. So she sat there, in front of her colossal, white curtained window, and for a few beautiful moments stared at the sun and cars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Ikebukuro Station is above ground, however, a large portion of the subway itself is below, including exits into the city above ground  
> 2\. A customary Japanese room found in mostly noblemen's houses which served as either study, sleeping, or living areas  
> 3\. Most cheap Japanese apartment's usually come with balconies, otherwise, they have a limited amount of outdoor light


	2. 1. Sky and Sea

_Mayu: Be sure to wear something cute please~!_

_Yuriko: Are we going bar hopping in the evening or something?_

_Mayu: Nope. I just want to dress to impress._

Yuriko’s face twisted into a helpless smile at the little blue bubble of text.

_Yuriko: Fineee. I don’t have a lot to choose from, though. Where are you taking me? Ikebukuro is a big city, and we have only so many hours in our day._

_Mayu: Madam, I promise your Grand Tour will showcase every possible amazing phenomenon this city has to offer!_

_Yuriko: You’re so caring~._

_Mayu: Yuri, please. I’m a professional. I’m going now go and research useless trivia about Nishi-guchi Park. See ya in an hour!_

Sekiguchi Mayu and Ueno Yuriko met in high school when Mayu was in her final year, and Yuriko was in her first. No one really knows why the two took to each other, but Yuriko would wait for Mayu to finish her club meetings, and Mayu often came by Yuriko’s class to wish her a good morning.

Their sense of formality faded over the years (if it ever existed at all), and they formed a covalent bond with their contrasting personalities. And here they were, in the land of infinite possibility surrounded by the potential for dreams. Their young bodies felt shaped for this specific purpose; to stretch their limbs to their extremities with joy and sorrow. It felt like the beginning of something great, or at least something impactful.

In actuality, however, Yuriko was unaware of this quality inside her. She was placid, though not at all ignorant, and went about living with an ambivalent sense of balance without forsaking anyone or anything. It was like standing on a distant shore, watching the waves roll in the distance, but never hitting the sand.

The large pale room she used as a bedroom had boxes stacked and shoved into the corners as if done on a whim, and their randomness of shape served to fill the heart with some uneasy curiosity. Someone could walk in and ask, “what is this person thinking?” and proceed to stare at the flat, or bulbous, or blocky, or thin cardboard shapes, wondering what was inside. Yuriko smiled and stretched her arms above her head with a yawn. She left her apartment an hour later.

Δ Δ Δ

Mayu and Yuriko decided to meet at a convenience store they’d passed the day before when wandering around the area, it turned out it was just around the corner of Yuriko’s building.

Miraculously, Mayu wasn’t late this time. She had arrived 10 minutes earlier than Yuriko and waited. Needless to say, Yuriko was surprised when she saw the slim figure of her friend rocking back and forth on her toes impatiently.

“Hey.” Yuriko smiled. “Did someone die? You’re actually on time.”

“Quit teasing! Come on, I’m taking you to Sunshine City first, then to the streets! You’d be surprised how many amazing things you can find in the little nooks and crannies of the city. We could also pop by Otome Road1, I think it be fun.”

“Um, actually, could we eat first? I haven’t had anything since before the train ride last night.”

Mayu turned on her heel, and Yuriko came face-to-face with a glorious expression of excitement.

“I know the perfect place.”

Δ Δ Δ

“I’m going back to Kamakura.”

“No. You’re not.”

“I’m never trusting you again.”

They were in the heart of the city, watching pedestrians wander the crosswalks with their eyes glued to their phone or staring straight ahead. Occasionally, a cross-light would change colors, and people either stopped or jolted onto the street. Yuriko and Mayu were standing on the corner of a four-way; in front of them was a restaurant with an ugly, yellow-ish, and crude caricature of the Basil Cathedral2 coming out just above the door. It was an odd decorative choice. It attracted even more attention, however, to the sign under it that read “Russia Sushi.” It wasn’t the kind of food joint you’d trust at first glance. If anything, it looked more like a tourist trap than a restaurant.

Apart from that, there was also a _huge_ man in a sushi chef outfit standing in front of the building with fliers in his hands, yelling at passerbys in an attempt to advertise the establishment behind him.

Unlike her unwilling friend, Mayu was smiling brightly at the scene.

“Hey! Simon!” She suddenly waved, and the hulking man craned his neck to the two women. Yuriko saw how his features presented a certain intensity. His eyes were covered in the shadows of his brows, and his mouth seemed to naturally fall into a flat line. It felt very uncharacteristic, then, when he stretched his lips into a big grin as Mayu approached.

“Miss Sekiguchi! Good to see you. Been well?” He had a thick accent, and all the words seemed to come out malformed and strange.

“Yes, I’m doing very well, thank you,” Mayu replied, looking up at the lumbering man, but then turned her attention to Yuriko who stood to the side with a new expression of radiant curiosity.

“This is my friend, Yuriko Ueno, she just moved here. The two of us are a little hungry, so you don’t mind if we stick around for a bit?”

“Of course, of course! Customer always welcome; no need to ask. Denise! Miss Sekiguchi here to buy sushi…!” Mayu and Yuriko entered the restaurant as “Simon’s” voice faded with the closing of the door.

The inside looked like a crude mash-up of design elements from The Winter Palace and a Japanese sushi restaurant3. There was a bar directly in front of the entrance and a set of traditional Japanese tables behind thin walls, all in a beige-ish tint with red and yellow highlights from either the artistry of the furniture or the sunlight. Somehow, though, the weird choice of architecture made this place feel more alive.

Behind the bar was a pale, bag-eyed man sharpening a knife, who Yuriko guessed was Denise.

“Miss Sekiguchi, pleasure to see you.” His expression didn’t change as he spoke.

“We’ll take a seat over by that booth.” Mayu told him.

“I’ll bring the menus then,” Denise said and ducked out of the bar into the back of the store.

When the women sat down, Yuriko’s eyes immediately met Mayu’s with an undisguised interest in this new crowd.

“So, how do you know these guys?”

Mayu smiled and leaned back in her seat.

“We’re friends, you could say. They were looking for someone with a pretty voice to do a voice-over of their commercial. No one seemed to want to take it, so I did and met Denise and Simon. They’re pretty cool, and in addition to paying me, they give me a twenty percent discount every time I come here, thirty when I bring friends.”

“So, you’re using me as a way to save money.” Yuriko eyed her friend with an unimpressed look.

“Not exactly, though that’s part of it.” She smiled again, this time somehow sadly, “I like this place.”

Yuriko, for a brief moment, understood what Mayu meant. There was a quality of maturity and distinguished elegance about the woman sitting across from her, but it didn’t impede on what made her so incredible. Russia Sushi didn’t look particularly high end, so maybe the commission price was part of the reason no one took their job request. And, considering how much models are usually paid, it wasn’t a surprise. But Mayu still decided to take it, not out of pity, but because she really did like this place.

_‘Even still…’_

“I’m sure it’s lovely, then,” Yuriko told her with an unassuming smile, lacking any guilt from the blatant lie.

Mayu knew that her pitying smile was disingenuous, but didn’t say anything out loud. Instead, a part of her heart wrung itself in pain, while another smiled at Yuriko, and another cried quietly. They understood each other then, and it was utterly horrible.

Denise brought the menus a few minutes later, surprised that the two women were completely silent. 

Holding the menu, Yuriko didn’t know exactly what to expect from a place named ‘Russia Sushi,’ but the odd variations of traditional Japanese foods was certainly a surprise. Her eyes scanned the page stoically before she smiled and said, “I’ll have some fatty tuna4 and a water, thank you,” and handed the menu back to Denise.

“I’ll have a mustard Basashi4…Oh! Can you also bring some of those Russian pastries, if you have any on you? And a water, too.” She passed him the menu.

“Do you mean piroshky5? Yeah, we have some, brought some over last night. ‘Zat all for you?”

“Yes, thank you.” With that, Denise walked behind the bar and immediately started working on their dishes.

“I can’t believe you’ve met such interesting people through something like modeling,” Yuriko remarked as she turned her attention from Denise to Mayu.

“Well, it’s a little more than that. When it comes to having a skill set, I’m a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. Not to mention, I can’t seem to get ‘big’ jobs, so I try to be resourceful.”

“How unsuccessful,” Yuriko teased but continued the flow of conversation before Mayu could retort or comment. “By the way, you’ve been living here for three years, right? What’s your take on the city?”

Mayu took her hand to her chin (almost comically) and had a brief moment of thought, then spoke.

“It’s certainly weird. The TV kind of weird. But that doesn’t bother me at all, really. I stay away from anything dangerous like gangs and yakuza. Despite that, —ah, thank you, Denise. Please, set the plates here…okay, thank you—I see some pretty amazing stuff. A couple of nights ago, I saw a couple arguing in front of a bar, one was yelling ‘this isn’t love!’ and the other was crying out ‘I don’t understand you at all’!

“I mean, isn’t it weird that people are like that? They say, ‘I think we’re really similar,’ but as soon as they adjust their point of view or see something they dislike, they say ‘no we’re totally different.’ I think that their contradictions stem from them wanting to see as much of themselves in the other person as much as possible. I guess that’s just the bases of all human interaction, though.”

“Enough of that, though, it’s something you see every day. Have you heard of the Dollars?”

“That’s quite the transition. No, I haven’t, are they some kind of gang?” They both picked up their chopsticks and eyed their food.

“Sort of, they’re what you call a Color Gang, but they don’t have a color. It doesn’t make much sense, but I guess that was the premise. Anyway, they have a private website where their members meet. They know each other by their user names, but they’ve never held a face-to-face, official meeting.”

“It sounds like something a bored high schooler came up with or a poorly made ARG.”

“Those are…? Nevermind, the point is, they’ve been growing, and there’s a bunch of rumors circling about them. Though, I don’t need to tell you not to believe everything you hear, right?”

Yuriko laughed in response. “I’m perfectly aware of how skeptical you are.”

“You’re gullible.”

“I’m not, and you know that. You’re just unimaginative and stubborn.”

They ate while they talked, mostly about nothing. Family, boyfriends, the weather, work, and anything that they didn’t care about. To them, however, the two women sitting in the glittering sun, it felt like all the time they’d spent apart came flooding back.

Their plates gradually turned empty, but the conversation didn’t die down. Yuriko still continued to retaliate Mayu in all her teasing and jabbing. It was as if the two were participating in a fencing match with their words, constantly parrying and countering, dodging with every syllable. Even though the tension was undeniable, they were both laughing underneath their helmets.

Once the check came, Mayu didn’t hesitate.

“I’ll pay.”

“No, no, I couldn’t impose on you like that. It’s not fair. I’ll pay.”

“ _Relax_ Yuri, it’s my treat,” Mayu was already pulling out her wallet “This entire trip is, actually. Plus, some people just like helping others.”

“…you get off on it?” Her voice was completely unassuming.

There was a pause as Mayu looked at her friend with an expression of confusion and ridicule. “Did you really just compare basic human empathy to a fetish?”

“No! That’s not…well…” Yuriko yelped with a bright red face, but her voice trailed off, eventually realizing how bluntly and absentmindedly she’d spoke.

“Oh my God!” Mayu, on the other hand, was roaring with laughter and falling over in her seat.

The embarrassed girl looked to the side a murmured quietly, “Sorry.”

“You’re adorable,” Mayu told her, wiping a tear away. “Come on, let’s go. Denise! Can we get a bag for these?” Mayu called from across the restaurant while gesturing at the piroshky on the plate.

Just like when they came in, Denise was behind the bar. “Sure thing.” He answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. A shopping area in Ikebukuro directed towards women, sometimes referred to as Fujoshi Street  
> 2\. A Christian church located in the Red Square (Moscow's city square) Moscow, Russia. It's heavily associated with Russian culture  
> 3\. In the second novel, Nartia refers to the interior of Russia Sushi as "an extreme imbalance of design", between elements of The Winter Palace (a historical landmark in Russia) and a traditional Japanese sushi restaurant  
> 4\. Horse meat sashimi  
> 5\. A common Russian pastry made with baked or fired dough with varying fillings


	3. 2. Tantalus

They ran around like wild geese, frolicking through Sunshine City1 and its seemingly infinite amount floors. Entertainment, gaming, manga, clothing, amusement parks, there was no end to it.

Yuriko was admittedly having fun, yes, but it felt as if her arrival was the perfect excuse for Mayu to fervently illustrate how fun this or that ride was, how the clothes she’d bought from this store a month prior were poor quality, or how the fish swimming around in the aquarium had been donations from the West. There were times when Yuriko saw a performer in the street, and her eyes went wide with fascination, though busking was something completely normal in such a big city. The same thing happened at the aquarium, where the two girls saw a manta ray sitting at the bottom of its tank.

“It’s nice, is what I mean. Seeing you so excited.” Yuriko and Mayu left the shopping district earlier with the intention of finding someplace away from the noise of the city. They’d ended up in East Ikebukuro Central Park, shopping bags in hand.

“You think?”

“Yeah, definitely! It’s better than seeing your face in crap resolution on a video call.”

“Hmm.”

Mayu got lost in her own ramblings, and Yuriko retreated into her thoughts. She sighed and glanced into the depths of the park.

It was the first of April2, so it wasn’t any surprise that the distinct shapes of schoolboys and girls were filtering through the cherry trees in small groups, their casual conversations carried by the wind. Sometimes the dark outline of a salaryman in a black suit would pass by, or a toddler would start crying in the distance, but otherwise the park was free of the people-clutter of the city.

While surveying around, Yuriko saw a distinct scene. Underneath the pink haze of a cherry blossom sat a couple giggling. They were teasing each other and trying their hardest not to move, but the air around them got too awkward after a few seconds and one of them laughed. Across the path from them, (they were sitting on a stone ledge) on a bench was an old man with wrinkly features and shaky hands, holding a pencil and sketchbook. He would occasionally look up and tell them to sit still, but was only met with more awkward laughter. He’d scowl and go back to drawing.

“Yuriko?” Mayu’s gentle voice seemed to wake Yuriko up.

“Sorry, is something wrong?” Yuriko asked.

“What were you looking at?”

“Hmm, well…” She looked away into the greenery for a second, then back at Mayu. “Would you like to get your portrait drawn?”

“Um…” Feeling unsure, Mayu tried to peer over Yuriko’s shoulder to see what had gotten her friend’s attention, but finally drew in a breath and said, “Okay.”

The two of them approached just as the transaction between the old artist and the couple had come to its conclusion: the drawing was carefully ripped from his sketchbook, and about two thousand yen was dropped into the artist’s hands.

The pair began walking away, clinging onto each other while laughing.

“That’s a good idea for a first date,” Yuriko remarked while her eyes lingered on the sauntering lovers.

“Oh, they were on their first date, were they now?” The old man echoed with some level of passive aggression.

“Well, have you seen a married couple ever act that awkward?”

“Don’t recall.” He clicked his tongue.

“Ah, what do you think will happen to them, will they get married, do you think?” Mayu asked, but the question felt more like a remark. With the three of them all watching the two lovers disappear into the distance, her words held some odd comfort.

“Only time will tell. Now,” the artist pocketed his earnings and jerked his head towards the two women, “is there anything I can do for you, ladies?”

“My friend would like to get her portrait drawn.” Yuriko gestured to Mayu with a smile.

“Ah, well, that will be a thousand, six hundred forty yen.” Yuriko pulled out her wallet, but Mayu quickly gripped her wrist.

“Actually, could you draw both of us? Here, I’ll give you five hundred more for that.” The artist looked back, frowning, but looking at Mayu, he seemed to wince and cave to her sweetness. He collected his pay from the girls’ hands and instructed them to sit directly in front of him on a stone ledge.

They ended up sitting with their knees facing each other and their palms in their lap.

“So, do you draw people often?” Yuriko asked, moving her body as little as possible.

“Yes, I do. I travel a lot because of it. I’ve seen a lot of wonderful things.” He briskly answered while sketching.

“That’s very good. I’m glad.”

“How about the two of you, do you see wonderful things?” He glanced at the girls then back at his paper, then continued making adjustments.

“Haha, every morning, in the mirror,” Mayu boasted.

“No, not usually. Then again…”

“Are you new to the area?” He focused on Yuriko as she looked back at him with a wistful feeling hidden in her wide eyes.

“Yes, I am.”

He grunted and went back to sketching. “Then Ikebukuro is a welcomed change for you, I imagine.”

The conversation went stale after that, and the two women tried their best to keep still. For Yuriko, it felt awkward, as her eyes kept trailing the tree line somewhere in the distance. Unlike Mayu, she had on a concerned and thoughtful expression as she said to herself, _‘I’d like to remember this place.’_

It was like any other park in spring, the grass had this fresh smell to it, and the fierce wind that bellowed at night now seemed like a gentle friend waving hello, carrying the wishes of the people it passed. Her mind was full of details that she frantically tried to scribble down somewhere in her brain.

Nonetheless, she raised her eyes back to the artist, who, weirdly enough, had an intense look in his grey eye as he took in Yuriko’s facial features. She gave him a tiny, guilty smile as if saying, “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.” He furrowed his stringy brows, and Yuriko thought he was about to say something, but he only bent his head down he went back to drawing.

The artist was done a short while later. He presented the pencil sketch to the girls, both of whom seemed happy. It depicted Yuriko and Mayu from the waist up, both smiling with their hair ruffled by the wind.

Their eyes trailed the paper that was left in Mayu’s hands. “This is great! Thank you so much.”

“It’s my pleasure. And also you paid me, what was I supposed to do.” Mayu giggled, but then looked at Yuriko, her eyes riddled with excited expectation.

She scanned the outline of her friend, those green eyes wholly focused on the drawing. “Your pencil work is really good, it looks so soft and drawn out, you really weren’t stressing your movements.” The old artist looked at her, partly surprised and partly overjoyed, then smiled.

“You’re an artist, too, then?”

“Yes, I am. I’m studying at the local university.” Yuriko confessed, turning pink and out of embarrassment for some reason. 

“Well, it’s always good to meet a fellow member of the craft. Tell me, what do you like to draw?”

“Anything, really. I like to capture the shape of things I see, because of that, I tend to focus more on a surrealist style, but I never forget the basics of anatomy and theory.”

He nodded in the same way a teacher would nod when their student gets a question right.

“Can I look through your work?”

“Oh, yes, of course. I have a smaller sketchbook with me.” Yuriko, although surprised at his request, set down her shopping bag and unzipped a subsection in her purse. She pulled out a small, thin sketchbook with a white cover and a brand logo in the corner.

She presented it to him, and he impatiently took it and wrapped his fingers around the cover page, turning it open. The pages he flipped through were filled with detailed pictures of scenery, animals, people, and random objects that could be found around any city. Mayu, who had at some point dove behind the artist and now overlooked his shoulder, pointed at a picture of a drunk man sleeping in an impossible position.

“She’s amazing, see? They’re all so intricate even though they’re only sketches.”

“Yes… you’re very talented.” He answered with a concentrated expression.

A little afterward, he saw that the next dozen or so pages were covered with circles, then, he gradually came to realize that they were coins. The design was peculiar; a triangle spanned the diameter of the coin, inside of which there was a circle with an ever-changing number. On the edge of the coin’s interior walls there was something big and flashy written in English.

It was like looking at anatomy, a drawn dissection done of every muscle to understand its structure and movements. The artist had used angles, proportions, and textures to create a specific kind of language that communicated how these shiny coins looked like the human form. One bent into a zigzag looked like the bent-over figure of a woman reaching for her toes. One had been melted into a thin plate with bubbled mounds looked like a sleeping man. Hereafter all the creases and crinkles in each shape assumed the same level of dimension humans had in their supple flesh. So much care was put into this craft, looking at it, the old man’s heart thumped wildly in his chest.

“Ah, how interesting. What are these?”

“They’re sobriety chips; they signify the length of time an addict has been without their substance of choice. I like to incorporate them into my work.”

The old man made some kind of strange noise and knitted his brows together, but then fell completely silent. He felt a vague sense of awkward shame when Yuriko’s words finally registered in his mind, but still, he couldn’t bring himself to speak. Even though the green-eyed girl’s tone was unassuming, he couldn’t help but feel mockery, even malice, hidden somewhere in those words. He swallowed, pretending to not care. The two women standing around him didn’t say anything either, however, for entirely different reasons.

He continued flipping, but he couldn’t stop seeing the coins. They were everywhere. On people’s heads, in their gesturing hands, the mouths that spoke to each other had little bronze circles for teeth. It was disturbing to look at, this systematic string of pictures that all related to each other in such a bizarre way.

He shut the sketchbook in his frenzy of racing thoughts, trying to regain his composure.

“Thank you,” his voice sounded momentarily exhausted, but he blinked it away almost instantly. “Your work is very good, I hope you continue studying.” He handed the book back to her.

“I know, right? I would like to see her open a gallery one day.” Mayu chimed with a pleasant smile.

But Yuriko gave a pathetic laugh in response. “You’re expecting too much of me.”

The shift he’d just experienced was absurd; it didn’t make any sense, not to the old portrait painter. The two women were chatting away, as if the previous scene had never occurred. His fragmented mind couldn’t help but momentarily wonder what kind of quality dulled out people so much, but then he dropped the notion and proceeded down a somewhat cynical train of thought.

“Hah… of course.”

“Hmm?”

“Sorry, it’s nothing. I think you should dream bigger than anyone before you..!” He told them, still somehow sadly cackling. “Otherwise, you’ll end up like me.”

“Is that so bad?” Mayu asked.

“No, but I do tend to wonder if I could have done something more with myself.” He gave a tired sigh, visibly having regained his archetypal ‘bitter-but-kind-old-man’ act. “Then again, I don’t really complain about it. It’s just curiosity for the possibility of greatness…I’ve always enjoyed how my life was quiet enough for no one to take notice but extravagant enough to scare me with the unexpected.”

“That’s a good way of living,” Mayu told him.

“You must have made some amazing pieces while you traveled around.” Yuriko, whose eyes had gained back that obscure curiosity, suddenly began to take an interest in the park-portraitist.

All of a sudden, though, he became sad again and stared at the tiled ground.

“No, not at all. I see things, but they seem to pass by, and when they’re gone, I can’t remember them.”

“How do you mean?”

“Here.” He shuffled through his bag for a brief moment and pulled out a different sketchbook he’d used to draw his clients. This one was the length of his forearm and bound in black leather, having visibly endured the wear of time. His wrinkly hand offered it to Yuriko. “Look through it.”

Though hesitant and somewhat surprised, she carefully wrapped her fingers around the black spine and cradled the book in the crook of her arm. She slid her fingers along the edge and turned it open. The first page had a picture of a vast, grassy field, the second of a bridge, the third of some old architecture, the fourth of a crowd of people in a brothel.

“Have you ever heard of the legend of the dullahan?” He suddenly asked. “It’s an ancient fairy from Irish folklore; it rides around on a carriage driven by a headless horse called a Coiste Bodhar, waving a human spine around as a weapon3. It’s said to be a bringer of death, for when the dullahan stops its carriage and calls out a person’s name…they drop on the ground breathless. Most interestingly, though, it has no head on its shoulders.”

As if by design, Yuriko flipped to a page on which she saw the legend the artist had described in full detail. A pale woman stood center page with a sense of dignity and grace. She had ceremonial robes falling down her slim body that disappeared into drawn-in patched of grass. In her arms was her featureless head, cradled like a babe.

 _‘She’s wonderful,’_ Yuriko thought,

“I saw one when I was traveling through Ireland, she was lovely, such an elegant creature, but I can’t remember what her head looked like. I try over and over, but I just can’t understand what I’m supposed to draw.”

Yuriko smiled with her eyes. _‘This man must be incredibly lonely. So lonely it must cause him pain.’_

“I see.” She said coolly, offering no solace to the old man sitting across from her.

Next to her friend, Mayu crossed her arms and raised a brow at the artist. “You… saw one?”

“Yes! I definitely saw one. She rode past me while I was lost in the woods, I could never forget that moment, but I can’t remember it either...”

“Do you think she felt sad that day?” Both Mayu and the old man’s heads turned in the direction of the young woman holding his sketchbook.

“What?” The onlookers spoke at almost the same time.

“I mean, she has her head, but it’s not attached. It must be strange, and somewhat uncomfortable, to live with two souls like that. It must feel like you’re never complete.”

“You think so?” The old artist’s voice sounded hesitant and confused. Yuriko heard his mild discomfort and settled a wry smiled on her lips.

“I don’t know… can something like that… actually exist?” As she spoke, Yuriko’s looked completely detached from the reality the portraitist and Mayu perceived. There was an unmistakable and earnest sadness in her voice that lingered only for a second in her surface-level sympathies, then, it was promptly swept away by the wind.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” Disregarding everything he’d seen, the old man frowned and looked utterly defeated as he slouched and put his elbows on his knees.

“No, not really. I believe you.” Yuriko said. He raised his head hopefully, even though he didn’t really find any reassurance in Yuriko’s words. It just felt like the appropriate reaction.

Mayu stood off to the side, and only made some kind of discomforted sound instead of saying anything. In light of Mayu’s reaction, Yuriko’s peripheral caught the young woman’s stature and sour face. She then decided to defuse the situation and handed the artist back his sketchbook.

“Thank you.” She told him, smiling.

“You’re welcome. It’s not every day that I get to have such a wonderful conversation.” To the old man, it felt as if no other words he’d spoken in his life were more real. It made the women listening happy, as they began to walk in the opposite direction.

But before he could completely forget, “Goodbye, then.”

Yuriko called out her final words to this stranger, whose name she later realized she’d never learned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. A building complex in the east of Ikebukuro known for the sunshine city skyscraper and the shopping mall on the complex's lower floors  
> 2\. Japanese schools open on April first


	4. 3. Wonderful Coincidences pt.1

The day moved on, and Mayu and Yuriko found themselves sitting in the center of Nishi-Guchi Park[1], watching the radiant sun almost glitter against the surrounding greenery. There was something distinct about the scenic view around them, something about the artistic take on modern architecture that gave the women a strange feeling of hope, fragility, and a reference to something foreboding.

“…and, in total, the park is ten thousand, two hundred forty-seven square feet.” Mayu, relaxed and somehow wistful, found that this was the perfect opportunity to talk Yuriko’s ear off with all the useless trivia she’d learned.

“That’s… an extremely useless fact.” Yuriko was busy eating, leaving her defenseless. Prior to their conversation, the girls decided to eat the pocketed piroshky they’d bought that morning. Mayu finished first, balled up her trash, and started ranting.

“Luckily for me, that was my intention.” This had been going on for fifteen minutes. Yuriko swallowed her pride and said nothing, calmly eating the last bite of her piroshky and balling up the trash to throw away later.

“What a cool place… I like coming here a lot.” Mayu said, her words drastically changing the mood. Everything came to a standstill, but at the same time moved all around them. It was a familiar feeling, the kind when you concentrate so hard on an object you forget the waking world. This was the case for Yuriko as she squinted at Mayu’s face through the bright sun.

“What’s with you?” Mayu looked back at her friend’s introspective expression.

“Hmm?”

“It’s rare for you to say things like that,” Yuriko said.

“Really now?” Mayu replied, turning away then back again for some reason.

“Well, I guess you just seem so unbothered by everything. It’s not that you’re bored by it… it’s more so that you keep your interests to yourself…”

Yuriko said silently, _‘It’s just like with Russia Sushi…’_ But she shook herself of the thought.

“If you say you really like something, you mean it.” With the firm conclusion, Mayu looked taken aback (if not confused), but then smiled wholeheartedly. As always, that expression said far more than her words ever could.

“Wow, Yuri.”

“Huh?”

“You should become a detective. You’re so good at reading people.”

“Where did that come from? Do you really think so…?”

“Yes, I do. I feel like you give the time of day to the details about a person they normally don’t care about or don’t notice. It’s pretty amazing, actually.”

“I can read you no problem because we’re friends. But…hmmm… I can’t fully discredit you, but I will say that I’d never make it as a detective.” Yuriko laughed and weakly shook her head.

“Why’s that?”

“Let’s see… take, for example, poker.” She leaned back a bit to relax, “It’s a card game where players have to find their opponents tells and figure out the cards in their hands; if they do that, then they have a better chance of winning. But even outside the game, poker players can’t stop looking for those tells because it’s what they do and who they are. They can never remove that mask.

“It’s the same with my art, I think, a byproduct. Everything a person does can tell you something about them, and I can’t help but look for those seemingly insignificant details because I’d like to interpret them. Though, I don’t think a person’s body language or behavior can capture their entirety. It’s as if there’s something more to them… a _soul_ , I guess.”

Yuriko smiled as her eyes traced some far off building’s structure, perhaps even spotting the tired figure of an office-worker or two. But she kept silent, so much so, that Mayu almost didn’t notice how much her friend said with her expression.

As if nothing happened, the girl faced Mayu again. “Even if I never get to, I really like my work. So any failure just ends up as another success.”

“That’s good,” Mayu replied.

“Thank you!” Yuriko laughed. “Moreover, I don’t like bureaucracy, so I couldn’t do any police work without cringing. And I don’t think it’s fair to have someone on the force who doesn’t care about public safety all that much.”

Mayu agreed with a snide comment or two, eventually devolving into a rant about how Yuriko should get health insurance, but something about her performative tone told Yuriko the girl next to her had been disappointed. She didn’t oppose it and watched quietly as the sound of footsteps echoed from their far left.

“Hello, hellooo!” A wide grin plastered on a youthful face, and a voice that squeaked with freshness. The high schooler waved to the two women as he approached. He had bleached hair, earrings, and casual clothes under his blazer. There was something about his dress, an archetypal gaudiness, so to speak, that made him look less like a rebel[2] and more like a street performer.

On the other hand, the boy behind him looked completely normal. He’d donned the same uniform but held a shy air about him. His face was screwed into an expression somewhere between fear and disappointment. He stood apart from the others, squeezing the strap of his school bag in nervous excitement.

Yuriko saw the boys’ approach upon spotting themselves and withdrew inwards.

“Ah, hi there,” Mayu responded pleasantly to the blonde, who had now sauntered in front of them.

His smile only grew wider with surface-level intrigue, “What are you lovely ladies up to?”

“We’re just out and about, enjoying the spring season, whatever it may bring,” Mayu told him, completely unbothered by how brazen he was being.

“How wonderful! It seems that the spirit of spring has brought us together. How about we celebrate the occasion with a drink?”

Both women chuckled.

“Do your parents know you’re out, harassing women?” Yuriko said bluntly; the comment coming off more berating than teasing.

“Ahh! How cruel, madam! You’ve wounded my heart. The only way to recover will be True Love’s Kiss!” The boy feigned a heart attack as he gripped his clothed chest for dramatic effect.

_‘He’s beyond saving.’_

“My, what a gentleman you are. What’s your name?” Mayu asked through her giggles.

“I’m Masaomi Kida, and the guy acting all scared behind me is _Mikado Ryuugamine_.” The boy had stuck his thumb out and pointed behind him, where _Mikado Ryuugamine_ had suddenly sprung to life after fading out of the picture.

“M-Masaomi!” It was strange, seeing such a quiet boy bare such a name. It not only contrasted his exterior character, but the almost ancient Kanji3 held an air of mystery about them that didn’t clash with the boy at all.

“That’s quite a name.” Yuriko echoed with wide eyes.

“Nee, _Ryuugamine_ , you shouldn’t act all shy around us with a name like that.” Mayu teased. However, the boy only drew further within himself.

Yuriko, who’d felt an unwarranted level of pity and intrigue in this high schooler, decided to entertain his anxiety.

“Are the two of you heading home from school?” She asked.

“Y-yeah, we are… um… I’m really sorry if we’re…uh, bothering you…” Ryuugamine stuttered his way through his broken sentence.

He seemed to stick out amidst the average crowd of city-dwellers. Not in the sense that his being posed any danger or exuded a level of intensity, it was that this short boy looked wholly honest.

Yuriko smiled knowingly, “Ah, are you not from the city?”

“No, I-I just moved recently…is it that obvious…?” He eyed the girl shyly.

“Well, I am _parched._ So how about that drink?” Kida, meanwhile, had grown impatient, his presence slowly becoming more of a nuisance by the minute. 

Mayu paused and put her hand on her chin. Had she on a plaid cap and a pipe in her mouth, Yuriko could’ve sworn she’d looked like Sherlock Holmes. But all sense of security from the detective-eques atmosphere disappeared when Mayu’s eyes darted back at Yuriko. At that moment, she knew her senior was going to toss her under the bus for a few short moments, and winced. 

“Hmm, the two of you seem nice, so I’ll tell you,” Mayu gestured to the boys to come closer as she leaned in. “You see, the two of us are actually working right now, we’re private investigators.”

“Whoa, seriously?” Ryuugamine whispered in disbelief with his grey eyes wide.

“No.” Yuriko’s voice and face were completely sober.

“Don’t listen to her; she just gets really defensive about work because she thinks it reflects poorly on her person.”

“Mayu!” Yuriko hissed at the half-truth.

“How about this, since I like you two, I’ll give you our work number. That way, if you’re ever in a… _situation,_ then we’ll do our best to help you out.” While speaking, Mayu pulled a note pad out of her handbag and scribbled down a phone number.

“No way,” Kida looked astonished and beyond himself: he’d finally gotten digits.

“Haha, just take it! Here,” Mayu shoved the page into Ryuugamine’s hands. “Just don’t talk to us right now. You know…reconnaissance and all that.”

Kida, who’d been the one with more of a sense of tact, had already decrypted Mayu’s words inside his brain. “Sweet! Thanks, we’ll peace out for now, but we’ll be seeing each other in the near future!” And, to the women’s luck, Kida grabbed his friend by the arm and turned away.

“Bye-bye for now then.” Mayu smiled and watched as their youthful gazes linger on them before they rounded a corner and were out of sight.

For a moment, there was pure silence between Mayu and Yuriko as a gentle breeze washed away the residue of their conversation.

“That was my number, wasn’t it?”

Yuriko’s tone was delicate but carried enough dominance that told Mayu the silence mentioned was a curtesy until the high schoolers were out of earshot.

Mayu turned to her friend, “Sorry… I couldn’t help myself.” She said that with dull transparency, seemingly guiltless in her tone and expression.

“Of course you couldn’t. Do you enjoy making me miserable or something?” Yuriko faced her friend with furrowed brows and annoyance staining her eyes.

Mayu squeezed her hand a little harder and sat up a little straighter. “Yuri… their just high schoolers, you know.”

“What does that matter?” Once again, such blunt phrasing.

Mayu had no answer for her friend. All those clever remarks disappeared in the wind’s current.

“Right…” Yuriko sighed and looked off into some forgotten memory that suddenly resurfaced, and she decided to entertain. Her eyes still continued to traverse what was behind her, when Mayu clasped both her shoulders and leaned in to ask a question.

With a brilliant and bright smile, she said, “Well, you can forgive me, can’t you? You sure are a bit of a buzzkill, aren’t you?”

“You’re seriously going to apologize and then insu—!” Before Yuriko could finish speaking, Mayu butted in to ask, with her brown eyes dark beacons in the light of day.

“Why don’t we stop bickering and go to Tokyu Hands?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. A public park in Toshima, Tokyo. Considered a tourist spot for being presented on the early 2000s show "Ikebukuro West Gate Park"  
> 2\. In Japan, wearing everyday clothing (such as sweaters, tee-shirts) as well as having piercings and dyed hair to school is considered rebellious and references involvement with gangs  
> 3\. If you're somehow unaware, the name translates to "Emperor on the dragon's mountain", and is highly unique and unusual


	5. 3.5 Wonderful Coincidences pt.2

Half an hour later, they’d spent about one thousand yen on miscellaneous home appliances and cute stationery. Mayu’s disposition became tenser over the course of the trip as her wallet slowly started thinning, and just as the pair reached Animate cafe1, Mayu shut down the operation with a mangled cry for mercy. Yuriko laughed at her friend’s hopelessness and allowed Mayu to take her wrist and navigate them to an outcrop of buildings near Tokyu Hands. They kept walking and eventually stumbled on a series of vending machines tightly knit together in a line next to a fenced-off parkade, the sun belted down from a clear blue sky.

“Hey, get me something cold!” Were Mayu’s last instructions before she rushed off to find a bathroom in some corner store.

 _‘The first second she’s figuring out her saving’s plan for the month, the next she’s tripping over her own feet.’_ This ‘selectively practical-ness’ was something Mayu made a habit of after living on her own for a little while now. But being a young adult, she never grasped the scope of a situation until it hit her in the face.

Yuriko had an appreciation, strangely enough, for her lack of foresight. It never necessarily put her in any trouble, but it felt as if it was Mayu’s brain providing a purposeful system glitch to keep herself on her toes.

 _‘I wonder if I’m like that. I might’ve absorbed that quality from Mayu without knowing it.’_ Admittedly, Yuriko also tended to lack future awareness. _‘Hmm, no, that isn’t it. It’s more so I ignore the obvious on purpose. That might explain why she’s so adamant about treating me like a child’._ But Yuriko thought this conversation with herself was to be had somewhere out of the way of tired pedestrians. She scanned the contents of the vending machine, decided on two grapefruit sodas, and pressed a few buttons.

After ten seconds, nothing.

Another ten seconds, still nothing.

By the minute mark, Yuriko had forgotten any sense of subtly, kicking and shaking it weakly, but in the end, made no progress.

 _‘Dammit.’_ Yuriko narrowed her eyes and frowned at the dispensary.

Just then, a feminine voice told her, “That’s not how you do it.” Yuriko whipped her head around and saw the short frame of a girl clad in black, brand clothing. She carefully stepped in front of Yuriko and patted the machine apologetically for the previous treatment.

“Lots of people die from falling vending machines, so it’s best not to shake them. However, this one’s a little weird…” She reached inside the crack between the vending machine and its neighbor and gave the side of it a smack. Suddenly, a loud rumble erupted from somewhere deep inside the machinery, and two cans fell from the display case into the dispensary. The girl, who seemingly now felt the need to boast, picked up the two drinks and reached out her full hands to Yuriko.

“There you go—wow.” Upon closer inspection, she was about her age, with dark hair and a wonder that floated around her youthful features. She’d become excited for some reason once they came face to face.

“You’re mega cute!” The mystery woman exclaimed. “Hey, weird question, but have you ever cosplayed? Or, rather, would you be interested in cosplaying?”

“Well, I… ” Yuriko laughed a little, feeling awkward at the strange situation. “I’m not really interested in things like that.”

“Seriously? Damn, you would have made such a cute vamp Lolita. You’ve got the vibes…” She looked at the ground in disappointment.

Without any warranted preface, Mayu’s face crept into Yuriko’s thoughts. “I’ve got a friend who might be, though.”

The woman instantly gained back her previous giddy emotion, “Seriously? That’s great!”

“She just left for the restroom a little bit ago,” Yuriko explained. “I’m sure the two of you can talk it over when she gets back.”

“Wow, thanks. I really appreciate this.” She grinned.

“Ah, don’t worry too much about it, but…can I…?” Politely, Yuriko gestured at the cans her conversation partner had seemingly forgotten she’d been holding.

“Oh, yes, of course!” She immediately gave Yuriko the cans. “By the way, can you press the button for the iced tea for me?”

“Erika! What’s taking so long?” A man’s voice called out somewhere behind the two women. They both curiously turned around and saw a man in his twenties leaning over the edge of the parkade fence. Much like the mystery woman next to Yuriko, he was also well dressed, but with a heavy-looking backpack slung over his shoulders.

The girl—who Yuriko presumed to be Erika—looked at him unimpressed and waved him away.

“Go away, Yumacchi, I’m talking to a cute girl.” Immediately afterward, though, her figure shook violently, and her eyes went wide as if she’d realized something. “Oh my gosh! I totally forgot to introduce myself, crap, sorry. My name is Erika Karisawa.”

“It’s alright; I didn’t introduce myself either. My name is Yuriko Ueno.”

“My name’s Walker Yumasaki.” The man had hopped the fence and now stood in front of the women with an unwavering expression that made Yuriko feel as if she were looking at a cat rather than a human being.

“He’s pretty cool, I think.” Karisawa grinned and playfully punched him in his arm.

“I mean until I get angry...”

“Hah, I guess that’s the case with everyone,” Yuriko said with much more quietness as she could not match that enthusiasm Karisawa and Yumasaki had when they spoke.

Karisawa suddenly piped up again, realizing she’d been driven far off-topic. “So, about this friend of yours…”

“Oh, right. I don’t know if she’ll ask for compensation, but I know she does modeling part-time. I’m sure she’ll find cosplay pretty interesting.” She said and assumed a smile. “As for me, I’m still learning how to navigate the streets.”

Yumasaki screwed his face in confusion, “Huh? You don’t know the city well or something?”

“I just moved here.”

“Ah! People just keep flooding in, don’t they?” Karisawa suddenly exclaimed with a laugh and flung her arms in the air. “We met another guy whose friend also just moved in. What made you take the risk?”

“University. I got a scholarship, so I didn’t want to waste the opportunity.”

“Ah, a great scholar. I wonder if you’ll one day unearth the secrets of the universe… but what kind of price will you have to pay…?” Yumasaki said.

“No, no, she’s more likely to find herself involved with a cult who’s taken over the campus and is using local clubs to draw in members.” Karisawa cut in.

“And then destroy them from the inside!” They both laughed at their conclusion as if they’d arrived at it with some blatant and obvious logic. But to Yuriko, it felt like they’d suddenly started speaking a whole other language. She cocked her head in confusion.

“Hmm… no, maybe a Neko-maid would suit you better.”

“Hey! What’s taking so long? Did you get your head stuck in the dispensary or something?” A third voice rang out from the parkade. It came from a man in a beanie who was leaning out from the window of a van. There was something stern about his face, it held a certain intensity, but nowhere near Simon’s.

Karisawa wasn’t even slightly unnerved by his sour tone and hollered out a pleasant greeting. “Dotachin! This is Yuriko Ueno! Say hi.”

“Ah…?” The man looked at Karisawa, confused, but then his eyes trailed the scene to Yuriko, who stood there absentmindedly looking back at him.

He didn’t seem particularly phased by her presence or Karisawa’s bubbly tone; he coolly nodded and introduced himself, “Kyouhei Kadota, pleasure. Guy watching the livestream in the driver’s seat is Saburo Togusa.” He was right; a man was sitting to his right. He was hunched over and looked very, very focused on whatever he’d been watching.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Yuriko answered and bowed, feeling it only necessary.

“Well done, Yuri. I leave for two minutes, and you’re already making friends! I hope you guys aren’t terrorists or anything.” It was the voice of Mayu, who’d just returned from the bathroom. Her heels clicked against the pavement as she drew closer to the group of people surrounding Yuriko.

“Two minutes? I thought you started a government uprising you took so long.” Yuriko retorted.

“No, I’m not that politically motivated.” She paused right in front of her and flashed a heartfelt smile. But in contrast, the loud sound of an explosion, or a crash, followed by people screaming, didn’t mix well with Mayu’s expression.

“…Speaking of terrorism.”

“Yuri that is a dark Segway.”

“Oh, I bet that’s just Shizuo working. Though it is a little early.” Karisawa told the two women with an absentminded voice, looking somewhere into the labyrinth-like depths of the city.

She said it so openly as if it was common knowledge, but Yuriko only felt confused and asked, “Who?”

“The super-strong guy, right? Throws things like a hundred miles.” Mayu said.

“Yeah, totally. He’s the guy who walks around town dressed like a bartender with sunglasses, and his strength is totally ‘S’ rank. Meaning, don’t mess with him.” Yumasaki nodded while speaking as if he was agreeing primarily with himself.

“I’ll keep a lookout,” Yuriko answered with a flat tone, her expression offering no interest in their conversation.

“He’s actually pretty chill.”

“Until he gets pissed.”

“Daija Vu much?”

“Ah! Well, on a brighter note, Yuri, who are these guys?” Mayu clapped her hands and directed her eager eyes towards Karisawa and Yumasaki.

“Ah well, if memory serves… Walker Yumasaki, Erika Karisawa, Kyouhei Kadota, and…”

“Saburo Togusa,” Kadota told her while pointing at the man next to him.

“Well, you guys seem fine. Besides the fact that you drive around in a van.” Mayu told them half-jokingly.

“Oh! By the way,” Yuriko gestured in Karisawa’s direction. “Karisawa wanted to talk to you.”

Her friend smiled and held out her hand. “My name is Mayu Sekiguchi, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Her voice was balanced, and her expression pleasant and calm. It was so perfect, in fact, that it felt rehearsed.

“Sekiguchi… Sekiguchi…” Kadota, who until now had been relatively silent, muttered loud enough for the four of them to hear, “Hey, by chance, do you know Simon from Russia Sushi?”

Mayu smiled knowingly. “Big black guy with a heart of gold? Totally!”

“No way! You’re _the_ Sekiguchi! That’s awesome!” Both the man and woman in front of them suddenly galvanized with this new information, their eyes sparkling with admiration.

“Mayu, what kind of rep do you have?” Yuriko asked, concern gradually showing itself more and more on her face.

“None! I swear!” Mayu cried in return.

Kadota flashed a weak smile and calmly explained the situation. “We’ve just seen you’re commercial. You see, we frequent Russia Sushi a lot, so we hear a lot about how you really helped business. And they also play the ad inside the restaurant sometimes.”

“Ah crap, I got so sidetracked!” Karisawa shouted and looked at Mayu with glittering eyes. “I was going to ask you if you’d be interested in my cosplay group.”

“Hmm, dressing up as anime girls, you mean?”

“Yup! We’ve got shrine maidens, Lolita goths, clumsy maids, demon mistresses you name it, over two hundred costumes to choose from.”

“With that elevator pitch, how could I say no? Do you have a card? Or do I have to give out my number for a second time today?” Mayu began to search through her purse for something to write on.

“It would be the first since you tricked those boys with my number. Now I might get calls in the middle of the night about their missing cat or something.” Yuriko sighed.

“Huh?” Both Karisawa and Yumasaki became confused at the disconnected conversation between the two women.

“Ah, it’s nothing. Two first-year high schoolers flirted with us a while ago. Shamelessly, might I add.” Mayu said offhandedly while she pulled out a pen and paper, it might have been necessary by that point to consider printing out business cards.

Yumasaki suddenly grew really focused and then asked, “Just out of curiosity, was one of them a kid with dyed hair?”

“Yeah... he had earrings and his casual clothes on. The other boy looked shy and had a weird name. What was it…Kirigamine?”

“That’s the air conditioner,” Yuriko commented while Mayu handed Karisawa the slip of paper.

“Mikado _Ryuugamine_ and Masaomi Kida?” Yumasaki interjected.

“Yes! Those were the two.” Mayu exclaimed in confirmation.

“Hah! That’s awesome, their friends of ours. What a coincidence! You’ve met three of our friends, and now we’re only half a mile away from some crazy street fight.”

Yes. The things experienced that day had been solely coincidental. Yuriko knew that the moment she had stepped off the platform into the city, something important had been revealed and something else was stripped away. However, with this situation being borne of whims, she couldn’t help but indulge in her mind’s pessimism.

There was shouting far away, and the sounds of metal knocking metal, like how church bells would chime to indicate a shift in time.

Dripping with coincidence, to the point of ridicule, Yuriko would sleep that night and remember how these people grew so close in the span of a few minutes. Perhaps, it’s that endless dream they chase, or the pain they all share. Regardless, if their hands are open, just what are they reaching for?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. a string of cafes tailored to anime fans, done in collaboration with various title and the retail corporation "Animate"


End file.
